Yes, I became a god just by exercising.

Chapter 176 First Encounter: A Time-Looping Ghost Realm!

As soon as Prince Justinian said this, the pirates on the deck all looked at Xiafa.

But the pirates felt more ashamed than surprised, thinking that he was indeed the son of Augustus and knew the famous Prince Justinian.

Only Avalon remained indifferent, looking neither at Shafa nor at anyone else, but instead staring down at the long wooden planks on the deck.

Those clear, innocent eyes were now filled with contemplation, as if they were pondering some difficult problems related to magical mechanics.

Xia Fa smiled slightly and replied:
"Your Highness."

Prince Justinian was quite puzzled:
"Xia Fa, what are you doing at sea? Aren't you only at the Insect-level?"

He asked this question not for any other purpose, but simply because he found it strange.

It's important to understand that while the sea offers freedom, it's also a place beyond the reach of the law. The other side of freedom is that it's fraught with danger.

With his rank of Xiafa insect, even with his status as a descendant of the Baal behemoth and his talent of elemental expansion, he can occasionally unleash considerable strength, but he is also far more likely to encounter danger than others.

The law of the jungle prevails; this is the first principle followed by many pirates.

It was only on the pirate crew of the Father of Ten Thousand Stars and Princess Shark that things were slightly better.

Upon hearing this, the captain of the Red Pufferfish couldn't help but exchange glances with his first and second mates.

The meaning was quite clear: take extra care of Xia Fa along this route, especially when it comes to naval battles with other ships.

After all, the Insect Rank... is just too weak.

Dagney's lips curled slightly. She had been crossing her arms, revealing her slender waist, and at this moment she gave Xia Fa's back a meaningful look.

Such a weak and frail little boy seems... easier to tease.

Xia Fa smiled:
"I want to improve myself; it's getting a bit boring staying in Rum City or Augustus City all the time."

Prince Justinian was taken aback by Xia Fa's answer, and after a long pause, he smiled and said:

"This isn't bad at all. Why don't you come with me this time?"

Whether based on Shafa's contributions to the refugees of the Kingdom of Augu, or on Shafa's status as a citizen of the Kingdom of Augu, since they had met on the dangerous Baron Ocean, Prince Justinian naturally wanted to offer Shafa some protection.

In any case, with His angelic rank and the power to sign a hegemon-level secret pact, protecting a bug-level being wouldn't be a problem.

Xia Fa smiled and politely declined:
"Your Highness, I am certainly willing to follow you, but if I really follow you, wouldn't my voyage this time have been in vain?"

Prince Justinian was surprised by Xiafa's answer and chuckled.

"That's true, it was my oversight."

He suddenly turned his head, looked at the captain of the red porcupine, and asked with a smile:

"By the way, esteemed Captain Red Porcupine, where is your destination this time?"

Seeing that He was a prince of the Augu Kingdom, and an angel who had signed a secret pact of supreme authority, He actually remembered the name of such a small boat captain as himself, the Red Porcupine was immediately flattered:

"We are going to the Worm Islands to find our leader."

Prince Justinian's eyes suddenly lit up:
"Really? Then it's convenient for us to go that way."

Avalon suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and said calmly:
"I'm going the same way anyway, let's go together."

The pirates on the Red Porcupine were taken aback at first, but then their faces lit up with joy.

The route from the waters outside Rum City all the way to the Worm Islands is neither long nor short, but it passes through several dangerous areas.

Moreover, one section of the route intersects with the territory of the "Roaring Emperor," which may lead to a very fierce battle.

But now, with Prince Justinian and Avalon, two angelic overlords, on board, what is there to fear?
To put it dramatically, unless a supreme being arrives, there's nothing to worry about.

"Excellent! That would be wonderful! Your Highness, please wait a moment. And Lord Avalon, I will have my men arrange the best rooms on the ship for you immediately!"

Captain Red Pufferfish was overjoyed, his face even turning red with excitement, and he immediately instructed his capable subordinates to prepare the guest rooms.

On the contrary, Degney didn't say much from beginning to end, seemingly not particularly interested in these high-ranking figures.

After a brief reorganization, the Red Porcupine set sail again.

Avalon stood alone by the ship, his childlike, innocent eyes gazing at the vast sea, yet his gaze was somewhat vacant, as if he had entered a state of deep thought.

As Xia Fa watched his retreating figure, the image of that colossal, ten-thousand-meter-long mobile armor involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

A striking white paint job, a magic-powered mechanical cannon, a high-temperature cutting blade, energy-concentrating wing assemblies, a jet braking system, full-element protective armor plates, a bizarre suppression field, a three-dimensional defensive light shield...

Just from a few glances from afar, he had already recognized many of the mechanical artifacts that would drive even the students and professors of the Royal Academy of Mechanical Engineering crazy.

To be honest, he was the least interested in the "Forge of All Things"—a top-tier secret contract—before.

But now, after witnessing Avalon's 10,000-meter-tall mobile armor with his own eyes, he suddenly felt... that signing a contract might not be a bad idea?
In particular, he has also signed contracts with the Silver Throne and the Gate of Stars. Could he develop the secret ability of the Silver Throne and use the Forge of All Things to forge a mobile armor ten thousand meters tall?
At that time, it will definitely be completely different from any existing mobile armor!
Thinking about this, Xia Fa became even more tempted, and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
All I can say is that the Overlord-level Secret Contract truly lives up to its name; every single one is so captivating.

While also on a ship, Prince Justinian did something completely different; he took out barrels of fine wine brought from the royal family and distributed them to the pirates on board.

The wines were all brewed from extraordinary fruits, far superior to golden wheat beer. The pirates were excited just from smelling the spicy or refreshing aromas, and loudly thanked His Highness the Prince for his gift.

After taking out their respective wine cups, filling the barrels with fine wine, and taking a sip, the pirates all showed expressions of enjoyment, as if they were tasting the most delicious wine in the world.

As a result, everyone's goodwill towards this prince of the Augu Kingdom, the future emperor, immediately increased.

Prince Justinian was happy to mingle with the pirates, but he didn't seem to know much about playing cards or dice. When he saw that some pirates were holding a book club, he joined in as well.

Thus, a somewhat strange yet perfectly logical scene unfolded aboard the Red Porcupinefish:
His Highness the Prince held a book on mysticism and stood on the deck, explaining mystical knowledge to the pirates. The pirates all stood, none daring to sit, but they listened more attentively than if they were listening to a dirty joke, their faces showing a thirst for knowledge.

Xia Fa watched this scene, his eyes flickering.

Putting everything else aside, this Prince Justinian certainly had a knack for winning people over.

He truly deserves to be the only disciple personally trained by His Majesty Octavian and Marshal Gaius.

"Indeed, given His status as a prince and an angel, coupled with the signing of a supreme-level secret pact, He should have known something long ago, such as the relationship between the Father of All Stars and Marshal Gaius..."

Furthermore, the pirates under the Father of Ten Thousand Stars were very ethical and never harmed civilians, which is probably why Prince Justinian did this.

If He encountered the pirates under the command of the Roaring Emperor and the Thousand-Faced Prophet, He would probably have already taken action to rid the people of this menace.

Xia Fa wasn't idle either. He found a spot on the deck and sat down, taking in the occult book that Marshal Gaius had given him.

The book is titled "The Story of the Augustus Family," a rather ordinary title.

As soon as Xia Fa opened the first page, she was shocked by what it contained.

Because the very first page explains all sorts of advanced divination methods!
You should know that these advanced divination methods can be sold for money at the Extraordinary Market!
"The Black Eye Divination Method requires an eyeball belonging to someone at least a demigod, and a bottle of citrine essence powder. The specific method is as follows..."

Although Xia Fa had developed a mechanical divination method and even placed it in the "Simple Divination Stone" for easy access, it was naturally good to master several divination methods.

Perhaps, it could even improve upon mechanical divination methods and create its own advanced divination system. Xia Fa only glanced at it a few times before becoming engrossed, turning the pages one by one.

With the arrival of Prince Justinian, the pirates' attention was focused on this young angelic overlord, and no one paid any attention to Shafa anymore.

A small group of pirates were secretly observing Avalon, probably awestruck by the massive, 10,000-meter-long mobile armor.

However, Avalon was deep in thought, staring blankly at the undulating sea, completely oblivious to the stares of others.

The Red Porcupine began to sail steadily, and the islands on both sides gradually disappeared, making the sea surface wider and flatter.

Xia Fa occasionally looked up, pondering and understanding the occult knowledge in "The Chronicles of the Augustus Family" while also checking the voyage schedule.

He could feel himself getting further and further away from Rum City.

Of course, he could return at any time via the ultra-long-distance teleportation array whenever he wanted, which would only take a few minutes if no one interfered, so he didn't really care.

"The information about the overlord-level secret contracts is still far too limited..."

Xia Fa spent almost an hour reading through the various advanced divination methods recorded in this book of mysticism. He vaguely had the beginnings of creating his own unique divination method, but it was still unclear.

Immediately afterwards, he flipped through the table of contents, intending to head straight to the pages containing knowledge and information related to the Overlord-level secret contracts.

As expected, the "Augustus Family Chronicles" contained a section about the overlord-level secret contracts, but when Xia Fa flipped to it, he was somewhat surprised.

Because the information above only contains fragmented details about the three overlord-level secret contracts: [Silver Throne], [Forge of All Things], and [Eternal Conditions], and there is absolutely nothing else!
Xia Fa couldn't help but recall that when he first signed the Ether Source Secret Contract, he only saw three kinds of Overlord-level Secret Contracts in the "Secret Contract Statistics Catalog" given to him by Tyrean.

At the time, he thought there were only three kinds of supreme-level secret contracts in the world.

Moreover, it just so happens to be one of the three: [Silver Throne], [Forge of All Things], and [Eternal Conditions].

"That's not right. How could the occult books that Marshal Gaius personally gave me only contain information for ordinary superhumans?"

Xia Fa was a little confused, but just then, whether it was his imagination or not, he noticed that the words on the page had distorted slightly.

Immediately, the originally thin pages suddenly doubled in thickness, as if two pages had been glued together, creating an extra layer.

Xia Fa was slightly taken aback, then realized something and was about to separate the two pages.

"Traveling whales! There's a small pod of traveling whales ahead!"

Suddenly, a pirate's excited voice rang out from the lookout tower, his trembling hand pointing excitedly towards the northwest.

Upon hearing this, almost all the pirates stood up and rushed to the edge of the deck without regard for their own safety.

Some took out binoculars, some had strange light emanating from their eyes, and some even used their secret abilities to probe in that direction.

Prince Justinian also put away his occult books and stood up with great interest.

He didn't walk to the side of the boat, but just glanced at it from a distance in the northwest direction, and then a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"did not expect……"

Even Avalon, who had been deep in thought, stopped and looked toward the northwest.

His clear eyes suddenly lit up, a rosy glow rose on his chubby face, and he murmured:
"It really is a traveling whale."

It seems that even this greatest mechanical genius of the Augu Kingdom in a century, a ruler who seems uninterested in everything but loves machines, is quite interested in the traveling whale.

The commotion on deck grew even louder, with Captain Red Pufferfish and Dagney rushing out of the captain's cabin and emerging from the fore-end of the ship, respectively, to gaze toward the spot where the traveling whales appeared to be.

In this situation, Xia Fa was naturally unable to read quietly. However, he still tried to separate the two pages that were glued together. Seeing that it seemed that he could not separate them by ordinary means and that he needed to put in some other effort, he put away "The Chronicles of the Augustus Family", stood up, and walked over.

"Are you sure there are migratory whales? We encountered one so easily?"

Xia Fa walked over to Dagney and asked her a question, seemingly casually.

Prince Justinian overheard this and said with a gentle smile:

"This is not easy; it's all thanks to everyone's good luck. I've heard that even those who specialize in chasing and catching migratory whales may go for more than a decade without any luck, and even those who are lucky are considered to have caught one a year."

Xia Fa felt a chill. He had previously guessed that traveling whales would be very rare, but he did not expect them to be this rare.

It seems everyone was really lucky this time.

"Drive over there! Quickly! Drive at full speed!"

Captain Red Pufferfish was completely excited, waving his arms vigorously and issuing orders.

Many pirates immediately descended to the bottom of the ship, and somehow, the entire thousand-meter-long pirate ship suddenly accelerated.

The ship's bow cut through the waves, as if riding the wind, and quickly moved northwest.

The salty, cool water droplets, along with the sea breeze that rushed towards them from the high-speed voyage, hit many people's faces, but everyone's expressions grew increasingly excited.

Xia Fa finally realized the disadvantage of his low rank. Although he had signed one high-level secret contract and two overlord-level secret contracts and was already able to fight with angels, he had not reached the level of demigod and his life level had not been transcended. He could not see where the traveling whale in the northwest was at all.

On the contrary, Prince Justinian's interest grew stronger, and he even began to count them:
"One, two, three... Not bad, not bad, a whole dozen or so traveling whales, we're so lucky this time."

A glimmer of light also appeared in the clear, blue eyes of Lake Avalonna:

"This is a great opportunity to practice."

Looking at the two angels, Xia Fa felt envy for the first time.

Judging from this, they seem to be able to see things clearly from hundreds of kilometers away or even further.

And now, all I can see in my field of vision is the azure sea.

Although the weather was fine and there was no obstruction in the view, he could only see the undulating sea surface.

Suddenly, the entire ship accelerated again, this time almost as if it were flying, and in one go it covered a distance of over a thousand meters.

The captain of the red pufferfish seemed afraid that the group of traveling whales would escape, and kept urging them on:

"Hurry up! Hurry up!"

The Red Porcupine accelerated again, this time at an unbelievable speed, as if it had transformed into a flying ship, instantly covering a distance of tens of kilometers.

It even gave Xia Fa a feeling as if he were undergoing a leap.

But immediately, everyone's expression changed.

Even Prince Justinian and Avalon, two angelic overlords, had a slight change in expression.

"A time-looping ghost realm? They're actually trapped in a time-looping ghost realm?"

Xia Fa finally saw the location of the traveling whale pod, and at the same time, his pupils contracted.

"This is……"

(End of this chapter)